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Credentials strand

In order to:

  • GET/POST data from/to an API,
  • query a database, or
  • connect to a socket (for receiving or emitting values or emitting, monitors or logs),

A digital twin must have access to it. API keys, database URIs, etc must be supplied to the digital twin but treated with best practice with respect to security considerations. The purpose of the credentials strand is to dictate what credentials the twin requires in order to function.

Defining the credentials strand

This is the simplest of the strands, containing a list of credentials (whose NAMES_SHOULD_BE_SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE) with a reminder of the purpose.

{
  "credentials": [
    {
      "name": "SECRET_THE_FIRST",
      "purpose": "Token for accessing a 3rd party API service"
    },
    {
      "name": "SECRET_THE_SECOND",
      "purpose": "Token for accessing a 3rd party API service"
    },
    {
      "name": "SECRET_THE_THIRD",
      "purpose": "Another secret, like a password for a sandbox or local database"
    }
  ]
}

Supplying credentials

Warning

Credentials should never be hard-coded into application code.

Do you trust the twin code? If you insert credentials to your own database into a digital twin provided by a third party, you better be very sure that twin isn't going to scrape all that data out then send it elsewhere!

Alternatively, if you're building a twin requiring such credentials, it's your responsibility to give the end users confidence that you're not abusing their access.

There'll be a lot more discussion on these issues, but it's outside the scope of twined - all we do here is make sure a twin has the credentials it requires.

Credentials should be securely managed by whatever system is managing the twin, then made accessible to the twin in the form of environment variables. Credentials may also reside in a .env file in the current directory, either in the format above (with a new line for each variable) or, for convenience, as bash exports like:

export SERVICE_API_KEY=someLongTokenTHatYouProbablyHaveToPayTheThirdPartyProviderLoadsOfMoneyFor

The validate_credentials() method of the Twine class checks for their presence and, where contained in a .env file, ensures they are loaded into the environment.